Family, Alone, Christmas With Poe - Part Two

Thanks for reading my blog – and I can see that dealing with the life of Edgar Allan Poe is going to be a great deal of work – but I look forward to the opportunity to learn more about “America’s Shakespeare

But before we get into Edgar’s life, I would like to talk a little about the writer’s family background. And I would like to start with one of the many myths about Edgar Allan Poe’s life – that he watched his mother die in the Richmond Theatre Fire in 1811.

There WAS a terrible fire on the day after Christmas in 1811 - the day of the year when I am writing the script for this podcast. The fire was an extremely dramatic event in the history of Richmond - 72 people died in the fire, including the governor. Monumental Episcopal Church was built on top of the ashes, and the bodies of many of those who died are in a crypt beneath the church. Surrounded by buildings of the Medical College of Virginia today, Monumental Episcopal was no longer used as a church after 1865, and is now owned by the Historic Richmond Foundation.

Edgar was like another creative American genius, the architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, in that they both made up facts about their lives to make them seem more interesting – stories that were accepted as true for years.

Edgar’s mother DID perform at the Richmond Theatre before her death, and DID die in Richmond, but not at the fire. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s look at Poe’s background – he was not a person born into luxury, and the poverty he experienced almost all his life influenced his wirings.

Edgar’s grandfather, David Poe, was born in Ireland in the 1740s and died in Baltimore. David Poe’s wife, Elizabeth was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and also died in Baltimore.

Edgar’s father was David Poe, Jr., born in Baltimore – a man who decided to become an actor when he was young instead of going into law like his family wanted. David Jr. later left his wife, Elizabeth, and two children, and we really don’t know where he is buried. Some scholars say that he died in Norfolk, Virginia.

Since we really don’t know that much about David Poe, Jr., it might be informative to look at the life and accomplishments of his wife, Elizabeth Arnold. A talented actress, she was married to the actor Charles Hopkins from 1802 until his death 3 years later.

Elizabeth was 18 years old and completely on her own. She met David Poe Jr., and they were married in 1806. Apparently David was very handsome, but not that talented. She became more and more popular, while he was ridiculed by the critics. She appeared in such Shakespearean roles as Ophelia from Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, and Cordelia in King Lear, and was considered one of the most promising actresses on the American stage. David was hissed and criticized for mumbling in his parts. He appeared in a production of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, and a critic wrote that he “mutilated some of his speeches in a most shameful manner.”

Elizabeth was also an excellent singer, and frequently sang the humorous Nobody Coming to Marry Me – a song with which she became associated.

In my opinion, some aspects of the marriage of Elizabeth and David were a little bit like the plot of the movie A Star Is Born – there’s a version with Janet Gaynor and Frederick March, and a version with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. But I think the best version is the 1954 A Star Is Born with Judy Garland and James Mason where Judy Garland sings “the man that got away.” With Edgar’s parents, it was the same situation– she became more and more respected, and her husband became less and less popular. Like the husband in A Star Is Born, he couldn’t handle his wife’s success, and resorted to alcohol with tragic results. By the way, James Mason narrates one of the video versions of Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart that I plan to use on a future web site.

David and Elizabeth had two children before he deserted the family – William Henry Leonard, born in 1807, and Edgar, who was born in Boston in January 19, 1809 while Elizabeth was touring in that city. According to Kenneth Silverman’s Edgar A. Poe Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. (the source for much of this material) David Poe’s personal property was assessed in 1808 at less than $300 (today it might be said that he had a net worth of $3000 – not that much at all.) The burdens of poverty, alcoholism, and a family he could not support were too much for him to handle, and Poe’s parents separated in 1810. We are not sure where David went, and his wife took the two children. In a future blog, I will go into Elizabeth’s illness and death in Richmond.

Now I would like to look at one of the writer’s most personal works - the original version of the 1829 poem, Alone – a poem that the writer could have written about his youth. There were actually serious doubts concerning the work’s authenticity, but now it is widely accepted as one of the most revealing of Edgar’s works.

This poem has meant a great deal to many people because so many of us can identify at one time or another with the feelings that Poe touches on in this work. Many people think Alone points to the heartaches of the writer’s childhood, and his feelings of difference. The poem climaxes with the words “of a demon in my view.”

What is this demon? Is it spiritual? Is it alcohol? And by the way, we do not believe that Edgar A. Poe was an alcoholic – he was far too prolific in his writings. But he did have an unnatural reaction to alcohol where he would loose control. So alcohol was therefore like a “demon” to him. Or does “demon” in this poem refer to the cruelty of his foster father John Allan? Does it refer to the writer’s loneliness and despair? Feelings of regret and pain? An uneasy feeling of longing that he cannot define? Like the greatest writers, Poe created works that can be read on so many different levels with multiple meanings.

The original version of Alone (from the
Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore website)

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were — I have not seen
As others saw — I could not bring
My passions from a common spring —
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow — I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone —
And all I lov'd — I lov'd alone —
Then — in my childhood — in the dawn
Of a most stormy life — was drawn
From ev'ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still —
From the torrent, or the fountain —
From the red cliff of the mountain —
From the sun that 'round me roll'd
In its autumn tint of gold —
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass'd me flying by —
From the thunder, and the storm —
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view —

E. A. Poe


The final section of this blog entry entry deals with material on my CD Christmas With Edgar Allan Poe – and remember that the Allans, as Episcopalians, went to a church that would have sung Christmas carols until January 6.

Readers of this blog can get the above CD at a greatly reduced price at:

http://Kunaki.com/Sales.asp?PID=PX00Z72XZ0

It may come as a surprise to many of us today to learn that he played the flute. The master of dark stories enjoyed playing the flute. Actually at one time the flute was considered appropriate only for men to play – I know it was thought very unladylike in colonial America for women to play the flute or any wind instrument where there was a danger that they would contort their faces into unladylike positions, and this might negatively affect their marriage prospects. George Washington even writes about this – and ladies of the period played the harpsichord, harp, and later piano.

Edgar Allan Poe played the flute in duets with his teenage sweetheart Elmira Royster from Richmond, while she played the piano on carols such as God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. Unfortunately Elmira’s father did not approve of her relationship with Edgar, and intercepted their letters to each other while Edgar was at the University of Virginia. Elmira marred a Mr. Shelton, and Edgar married his cousin, Virginia Clemm. Music was always very important to the writer, and he played duets with Virginia Clemm playing the piano. Coventry Carol was especially popular then. One night when Virginia was playing the piano (though some reports say the harp,) she began spitting up blood, and Poe cared for her 5 years until her death. Until her illness, Poe would play the flute almost every night with Virginia. It is not hard to imagine them playing Silent Night.)

While Edgar and Virginia would have definitely celebrated Christmas influenced by the newly emerging Victorian attitudes, such Victorian era Christmas carols as We Three Kings, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and It Came Upon a Midnight Clear were not published until after Poe’s death.

Thank you for reading this blog entry, and in the near future I intend writing about the writer’s youth, and the poem that he wrote later in his life about his teenage crush. And I would love to hear from you at
celebratepoe@gmail.com

I would like to end blog with the first of many references in this series to the writer’s mysterious death, Years after Virginia’s death, Edgar and Elmira met again. She was now a widow, and Edgar and Elmira rekindled their romance, and were to be married at St. John’s Church in Richmond. But the writer tragically died in Baltimore a few days before their wedding.

I have a podcast to accompany this blog that ends with a fanciful, but sad version of Auld Lang Syne (a Scottish melody by Robert Burns) In this piece I tried to be accurate to the instruments of the writer’s adult world (flute, piano, and harp), emphasize the melody, but also hint at the tragedy in his life. In addition to Poe seeing his wife die after a long period of illness, he experienced his father deserting the family while Poe was a child, Poe’s mother dying when he was two years old, his only brother dying at 39 from alcoholism, being disinherited by John Allan, and constant poverty. The fact that the writer triumphed over the many tragedies in his life to become “America’s Shakespeare” is proof of his genius. If Christmas is a time when man can surpass what it is to be ordinary, Edgar Allan Poe unknowingly celebrated the spirit of Christmas every day. And as we enter a new year with its hopes and opportunities, one cannot help but think that this must have been the way Edgar unconsciously approached each day. The more I study Edgar Allan Poe, the more I see that not only could he write horror stories better than anyone, but was a writer with a deep hope for a better future.

Christmas With Edgar Allan Poe - Part One

You can hear all the music I mention in this blog at

CelebratePoe.podbean.com

The emphasis in this specific blog is probably not what you expect when you think of Poe –I would like to deal with Edgar Allan Poe and Christmas - based on my CD Christmas With Edgar Allan Poe. That way I can use the music and not have to worry about getting rights. I thought the CD would be especially appropriate considering the time of year when I am writing this podcast would serve as a good introduction to Poe’ life.

BTW – you can get the CD at:

http://Kunaki.com/Sales.asp?PID=PX00Z72XZ0

And you can see all my CDs for sale at:

http://Kunaki.com/MSales.asp?PublisherId=111714

Well – enough of that.

There will certainly be time in this blob to concentrate on Poe’s imaginative works, but this entry does NOT focus on dark music that you might associate with a tortured soul. This rest of this blog focuses on period holiday music that Poe undoubtedly knew.

Poe’s parents died when he was young, and John Allan took Poe to raise, even though Poe was not formally adopted. And the young Poe would have joined his family in their pew at Monumental Episcopal Church. Early 19th century Episcopal liturgy had few Christmas songs in the hymnbook, but one carol that Poe would have heard on the church organ was O Come All Ye Faithful.

John Allan inherited $700,000.00 (a sum today that would be worth more than 10 million dollars), so he certainly was able to give young Edgar every advantage. When Poe was six years old, his family moved to England and lived there for five years. It is not hard to imagine Poe listening to English Christmas carols on the harpsichord in England such as I Saw Three Ships. While we do not have exact records, it is highly unlikely that Fanny Allan, as the proper lady of a wealthy family, did not have a harpsichord – an instrument often used in duets with the flute for such melodies as The Holly and the Ivy.

Most historians believe that the two great loves of Poe’s life were Elmira Royster and Virginia Clemm – and both ladies played the piano, an instrument that was beginning to surpass the harpsichord in popularity. We knew that Edgar and Elmira fell in love when they were young, and Elmira frequently played the piano possibly with such carols as Joy to the World, and What Child Is This? for Poe.

In a blog in the near future, I would like to write about the duets that Virginia and Poe had – and I bet you can’t imagine what musical instrument Poe played. So next week will not only have Christmas With Edgar Allan Poe, Part Two – but look at Poe’s earliest years and one of Poe’s most personal poems.

And please email me at celebratepod@gmail.com

I really can’t end this blog without a credit section – thanking some of the sources that are making this podcast possible. I will certainly be going into more detail about my sources in future episodes, but I would like to credit the websites for the Poe Houses or Museums in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Richmond, as well as such wonderful web sites as the House of Usher and the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore. Two books that I have found especially helpful are Edgar A Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance by Kenneth Silverman and Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography by Arthur Hobson Quinn and Shawn Rosenheim.

Why We Should Care About Poe

One reason we should care about Edgar Allan Poe is that 200 years after his birth he is still so widely read, as well as the fact that he means a great deal to so many people. He still speaks to us, often on a very emotional level. Poe was a true genius, who suffered so much in his life that he was able to tap into the dark side of human nature, as well as our dreams. To quote Dr. Harold Bloom, a Yale Professor and one of the world’s leading writers on Shakespeare, “Poe has an uncanny talent for exposing our common nightmares and hysteria lurking beneath our carefully structured lives."

And there is something for everyone in Poe's works. He writes about joy, passion, happiness, humor, despair, jealousy, and fear - basic human emotions to which we can all relate. In his short life, he showed a command of language combined with an incredible imagination.

Like most of us, the first time I read Poe was in high school, and his complex ideas about existence and death were just not part of my world. When we are teens, it is the mystery and the good scare that turns us on to Poe. When I got back into Poe when I was older, I starting seeing things that I previously completely ignored the first time around – I had a different view about life, and a different view about Poe – there was a lot more substance there than I realized.

Edgar Allan Poe invented several genres that had never even existed previously. He is credited with inventing the science fiction story, the first real detective story, was one of America’s first poets, an outstanding literary critic, and many people feel he was the first person to get the short story right - all this under incredibly difficult conditions.

We live in a time of short attention spans, and are used to having entertainment fast and easy to understand. So we might think that Poe is not easy to understand – he takes work. He was classically educated like Shakespeare, and uses a lot of words that we just don’t use today very much.
Poe demands a lot from the reader, but I guess you get out of something what you put into it.

I would like this end this blog entry by quoting again from Dr. Bloom. In expressing how well Shakespeare understood human nature, Blooms writes “Shakespeare reads me better than I read Shakespeare.” I believe the same can be said about Edgar Allan Poe.

Introduction

Welcome to the first entry in this blog. To keep me from wandering off topic, I am going to try and stick to one topic throughout this blog - Edgar Allan Poe. I want to celebrate Poe’s life, works, and influence in anticipation of the bicentennial of the birth of America’s Shakespeare. Sections of this blog is a transcript of portions of my podcast - celebratepoe.podbean.com - so hopefully it will not just be the first thing that comes off my head.

My name is George Bartley, and first a little bit of credentials – not that any of that is really important. I majored in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance in grad school at Mary Baldwin in Staunton, Virginia. When I moved to Richmond, Virginia, I got a job at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum – the world’s largest collection of memorabilia associated with the writer – a place whose employees are some of the most wonderful people I have ever met. It was just a short jump from being a Shakespeare nerd to being a Poe nerd - and I hope that by the writer’s 200th birthday, you will stick with me and this blog (hope that is not too big a desire!) to be entertained and learn a great deal about America’s Shakespeare. And as you understand more about Poe as a writer, I think you will learn more will learn more about yourself in the process.